This is the photo the visitor’s bureau puts up when they are selling potential tourists Colonia as a destination. The street of sighs:
No one knows where it got the name but I go with the less romantic version which suggests sailors cabs here looking for shoreside fun in the brothel lining the street. You might prefer the story of the sighing maiden stabbed to death, or the sighs of condemned men marching to their executions on the riverfront.
If it is not apparent from the photo above it should be noted that Montevideo is the southernmost capital city on the continent. And you can also note how close across the water from Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina and next week’s destination.
Colonia reminds me of those cities whose reputation makes them desirable but encountering them in the flesh makes you want to live there. Think of how visitors to Key West get enamored of their vacation destination and day dream of settling down.
Fortunately we enjoy being nomads so for us settling down isn’t of interest but Colonia is an enticing destination.
And this time of year we had it, if not to ourselves st least quite empty.
Empathy is taught at the Saint John the Baptist Primary School.
Some builder left his mark.
After our walk we looked for a place to park and much of old town looked okay except some streets with steep cambers that would put our home at an intolerable angle for the night or put us under trees making Starlink useless as below. 
The waterfront was the answer, clearly. We ended up on the red arrow. 
It’s not marked on iOverlander as I think it’s not accessible to motorhomes and large vehicles so technically maybe we could have been violating the edict but our van fits easily on the narrow approach road even with passing traffic and it’s low season so there isn’t much traffic anyway. Layne was awake in the middle of the night when a police patrol came through and they said nothing so…fortune occasionally favors the bold. Plus we are discreet with no camping gear outside the van and no trash or liquids spilled outside either.
It was cold and breezy but dry and we settled in for the night. Our van is well insulated and it stays quite warm inside as long as outside temperatures are reasonable, so even though there was a windchill it wasn’t cold in our home. Then a funny thing happened; two Americans walked up. 
To cut a long story short we explained how they came to find a US registered van parked on the waterfront and we ended up going out to dinner. We talked about South America where they are considering snow birding as they are retired in Virginia and we suggested they check Chile.
It was an extremely convivial evening and I fear we may never see them again such was the luck involved but it boosted our morale to be around people we could relate to. We went home with a smile.
And if the scenery doesn’t entice you then perhaps the bookstore might - in English. I didn’t dare go in as our van/home accumulates plenty on kindle but has no room for paper.
English is widely spoken in Colonia if that helps.
The Portuguese church:
